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Chapter Seventeen
Austin and Jenna sat in a diner just outside their hometown, pushing food around on their plates. It was Wednesday, and the past five nights had taken a toll on both of them, emotional and physical exhaustion evident in their drawn expressions and bruised eyes.
On Saturday, the day Anna was supposed to have returned, they had taken turns calling her every half an hour. They had driven to the airport together in virtual silence and sat in the terminal without much hope.
By Monday they’d been frantic with worry and they’d gone together to the local police station and filed a missing person's report. They’d given as thorough an account as possible, without mentioning the shadow men of course, instead implying that it seemed as if Jake was part of some kind of cult.
The following day they learned that the Investigations unit in London had interviewed everyone at the Frat House, but no one knew Jake's last name, where he lived, or had seen him in over a week. In addition to that the woman Anna had seen with him had overdosed on heroin ten days earlier.
So far they'd kept her disappearance a secret from the rest of the girls, figuring it was pointless to worry them until they had no other option. They had tried to reach Anna's father however, the situation being as dire as it could get, but no one seemed to know how to contact him.
"I think we should go to London," Austin said finally. "Maybe no one at the clubs are talking to the police, but that doesn't mean they won't talk to us."
Jenna nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Besides, it would be better than just sitting around and waiting. I hate this..." her voice broke and Austin reached across the table to squeeze her hand.
His own eyes were bright though he'd refused to give in to tears. He felt if he did it would be like giving up.
Jenna took a deep breath and pulled Anna's credit card out of her purse. She dialed information, called the airline, and booked a flight to London for the following morning. It would leave at 7:40 am their time and arrive in London at 11:30 pm.
That being settled they paid their bill and went outside.
"I'm going to tell the girls tonight," Jenna stated. "Not everything...just that she was supposed to come home and we haven't heard from her...I'll wait until we're on our way before I let them know we're flying there, otherwise they might want to come."
Austin nodded.
They had driven separate cars since Jenna was borrowing Anna's. Initially she had been so angry at her for not contacting them she figured she was entitled. Now she gleaned a kind of comfort from being surrounded by Anna's apple scented body spray and listening to her music.
Austin leaned in to hug her and she let him, returning it with one arm. She wasn't much of a hugger usually, but when she felt the tremor in his chest she wrapped her other arm around him and swallowed hard. They parted with plans to meet and stay at Anna's for the night so they could get up and go early the next morning.
Once on the road she called the girls, all but Holly who was in North Carolina, and told them to meet her at Anna's around dinner time. She had several hours to kill and found herself driving aimlessly, finally ending up at Logan Point. She sat in the car staring out at the lake.
She shouldn't have let Anna stay in London. She'd known something wasn't right and she never bet against her intuition. Her friend had been determined but she still found herself thinking of all the ways she could have prevented this.
Please God, let her be all right, she petitioned for the thousandth time since Friday. She had called Les and asked if he, Kip, and Brent could scour the area, particularly the clubs and bars. They'd come up with nothing.
Though she was normally not one to let emotion get the best of her, she had been a complete wreck for days, crying one second, burning with anger the next, and otherwise filled with anxiety. She would stare at her phone and just will it to ring with Anna's musical little voice on the other end.
She tried to take a leaf from Anna's book and imagine she was fighting demons side by side with Jake, so caught up in that other world that she'd lost track of time. But it didn't stick, it always ended up with a vision of her dying on a basement floor of an old, abandoned building. The image was so strong she had to force it away and tell herself it was not a true vision. Just because she'd always had a bit of sight did not mean she was clairvoyant. It's just what you're afraid happened and you’re making yourself believe it's more vivid than it actually is, she thought adamantly. She stared at the water trying desperately to convince herself of that. At least you don’t see her dead, a small voice whispered, dying, but not dead.
She got out of the car and paced around the park, willing the hours to slip by. She desperately wanted on that plane, needed to be in London. It was the sitting around on her hands that was driving her batty, she was an action kind of person.
She finally got back in the car and drove to Anna's house, deciding she could keep herself busy by making one last attempt to find a number for Martin Preston. It really bothered her that the guy didn't provide a way for people to reach him, that his daughter had been missing for days and he had no idea. She knew he generally checked in with Anna once a week, but the last time had been Friday so he wouldn't know anything was wrong for at least two more days.
She searched high and low, in every drawer and cabinet, but aside from numbers they'd already tried-nothing.
She spent most of the time trying to figure out exactly what she was going to tell the girls, but when she heard them pull up the driveway she had an overwhelming urge to spill it all. If it wasn't for Austin she already would have.
They came through the door talking and laughing. She was happy to see Jess could pull herself away from Nate for a few minutes....Stop that! She commanded. She’d been working on thinking more generous thoughts about her sister. She had come to realize life was too short to waste on negativity. Something she now realized Anna had learned from her mother's death.
Jess put a halt to their bantering as she looked closely at her sister. "Jenna, what's wrong? You look terrible!"
She took a deep breath and pushed out the words. "Anna's missing."
Saying it out loud, and to them in particular, made it a reality like nothing else had. She felt the tears coming and tried to get a grip but ended up breaking down instead.
"What do you mean, missing?" Jess's voice went up an octave. The sight of her stoic sister unraveling sent a wave of panic through her.
Macey and Marina started talking at the same time but Jess shushed them, indicating they wait until Jenna got it together.
"She was supposed to fly home on Saturday, I know I told you that she'd changed her mind, but I lied. I haven't h..h...heard from her since Friday."
"Oh my God, we have to call the police!" Marina exclaimed.
"Already did,” she sniffled, “Austin and I filed a missing person's report on Monday m..morning."
There was a moment of shocked silence. Jess broke it, her concern giving way to anger. "Why didn't you tell us! I hate that you always think you need to deal with things by yourself! You didn't want to worry us, right? God Jenna, you look like you haven't slept in days! We could've been in this together!"
"I know! And I'm telling you now, okay? You don't understand....she…it's," she faltered not knowing how to continue without telling them more of the truth.
"She what?" Macey asked quietly her dark eyes narrowing a little.
Jenna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. They’ll think I’m nuts. But what choice did she have? So she told them, slowly and carefully, beginning with the whole Goddess meeting, moving on to her new ability to see demons and Anna's already established one. When she was finished their reactions were varied.
"You really see demons?" Jess whispered.
"There is no such thing as demons!" Marina stated.
Macey just shook her head, her eyes wide.
Jess turned on Marina, "So what are you saying, Jenna's making this up? Or that she’s crazy? Which one?"
"I don't know, maybe they think they're seeing things...
"Oh bullshit, just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it doesn't exist!"
Marina rolled her eyes, "We're not going to have another God conversation are we?"
"Oh okay, like Jenna really beats you over the head with things like that!"
"She doesn't, but you have."
"But this isn't about me...
"Stop it, both of you!" Jenna commanded. She turned to Marina, "Regardless of whether or not you believe these things exist, Anna went off with a guy who led her to believe he was some sort of demon fighter, and now she is MISSING, for the past five fucking days!"
Marina closed her mouth as that sunk in.
Macey finally spoke up. "You're going to London, aren't you?"
Jenna was startled by that deduction. "Austin and I."
"When?"
"Tomorrow morning."
"Wait, I want to go!" Jess demanded.
"You didn't even go in the first place…"
"Oh, so now you're going to hold that against me? You're the one who kept this from all of us and LET her stay knowing the guy could be in a cult!"
The tears returned immediately, "You're right, it's my fault, which is why I'm going."
Jess shook her head, her own eyes watering. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. It's not your fault." She wrapped her arms around her sister, and Marina started pacing.
"So what are you going to do there?" Macey asked.
Jenna gently pushed her sister's arms away and got a hold of her fluctuating emotions. "We're going to visit all the bars, talk to people...I don't know, we just have to do something."
"I could help," Jess insisted.
"I know. I probably should have given you the option. But Austin and I got the last two tickets for that flight, so even if you do go it can't be with us." A small lie, but she really didn't want her sister anywhere near danger.
Jess sighed. "How long will you be there?"
"I don't know. It depends."
"But what if something happens to you....
"Austin will be with me, we won't separate for any reason or do anything stupid."
The room grew quiet then as they all began to wonder if they were about to meet with tragedy, and through all their differing thoughts there was one common plea. Please let her be okay.
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